Unforgiven: Why It Still Defines the Western Genre You know, it’s been quite a while since I’ve done a wanky, pretentious video essay. And the truth is, I’ve kind of missed it. I like doing that kind of thing. It’s one of the reasons I started this in the first place.
And as fun as it can be to rant and rave about the latest piece of cinematic sewage excreted by the not so great minds of Hollywood, it’s also nice to be reminded that movies at their best can be something truly special and why they’re worth fighting for.
And truly, movies don’t come much more special than Unforgiven. The 1992 Clint Eastwood epic revisionist western about an aging former bounty hunter pulled back into his old life in a somber and reflective tale of revenge, corruption, and redemption that tried and amazingly enough actually succeeded at both deconstructing, but also paying tribute and saying a poignant and respectful farewell to the mythmaking and tall tales of the Wild West. imdb.
Unforgiven: A Masterpiece of the Western Genre
Wow, imagine that. Imagine deconstructing something without turning it into a joke. It’s a movie that doesn’t just tell a great story with an incredible cast and some absolutely gorgeous cinematography. It also has a lot to say about the genre that it’s part of and the decades of embellishment and romanticism that have been layered on top of it.
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It’s a flawless example of how to deconstruct a genre without destroying it, stripping away the layers of polish to expose a more meaningful truth at the core. And well, it’s a movie I’ve been wanting to dissect properly for a long time now. wiki.
So, grab your six shooter and saddle up, partner, because we’ve got a long ride ahead of us.
A Dark Beginning in Big Whiskey
Unforgiven kicks off in the frontier town of Big Whiskey, where a couple of cowboys attack and disfigure a local prostitute because she laughed at one of them for having a small dick. Boy, that escalated quickly. I mean, that really got out of hand fast.
I mean, straight away the film makes it pretty clear. This isn’t going to be some noble adventure like the days of John Wayne and Gary Cooper. This is much darker, grittier, brutal, and well, realistic.
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The rest of the girls go to the local sheriff, Little Bill Daggett, looking for justice, but funnily enough, they don’t find much. Little Bill doesn’t think much of the working girls, and he knows that hanging two criminals would only spark a war with the rest of the gang.
William Munny and the Bounty
So, he’s content to maintain an uneasy peace. Deciding instead to take matters into their own hands, the girls pull their savings and offer a thousand bounty to anyone that can bring the two men to justice, dead or alive.
This is where our main man, William Munny, comes into the picture. Once a notorious gunslinger, he’s now an aging farmer and family man trying his best to put his old life behind him. But the farm’s struggling and he needs the money.
So reluctantly, he teams up with his old partner Ned and a brash young gunfighter who calls himself the Schofield Kid to take on the bounty and eventually they manage to hunt down and kill both men.
The Conflict with Little Bill
Little Bill, on the other hand, hears news of the various bounty hunters converging on his town and decides to put a stop to it. Pronto.
Tensions finally come to a head when Ned gets captured by Little Bill and tortured to death, causing a vengeful drunken Munny to ride into town and take revenge for his friend, finally reverting to the man he tried so hard to leave behind.
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Now, to understand why this movie was so significant, you have to look at it in the context of its time. The western genre was effectively dead and buried by the 1990s. After the golden age of the 40s and 50s, the spaghetti westerns and team-up movies of the 60s and 70s, the whole genre finally sputtered out and died by the 1980s.
The Context of the Western Genre
There was no more public appetite for western adventures, and apparently no more stories left to tell. All except one that is.
See, Clint Eastwood by this point was well into his 60s and looking to leave behind his tough guy action hero persona so he could tackle more thoughtful mature films going forwards. But he wanted to say goodbye properly to the genre that had launched his career.
And as it happened, he’d been sitting on the script for Unforgiven for years, just waiting until he was old enough to play the main character. And by the early 1990s, the time was right.
Myth Versus Grim Reality
You know, I could spend hours waxing lyrical about the incredible performances in Unforgiven, the sparse but brilliantly effective dialogue, the fascinating characters, the superb direction, and the somber, evocative soundtrack.
But in a way, that would be doing the film a disservice because where it really excels is in what it’s trying to say to the audience, the themes and ideas that it explores. And I don’t mean in some preachy pandering identity politics kind of way. I mean it’s something far deeper and more meaningful.
The first and most obvious of which is the myth versus the grim reality of the old west.
English Bob and the Making of Legends
So much of this film is concerned with dismantling and deconstructing the glamorous cowboy and gunslinger legend. Characters like English Bob and the Schofield Kid spin tall tales of heroic shootouts and legendary gunfights. But the reality is far more messy, brutal, and unglamorous. Killings are awkward, terrifying, and often pathetic. Men die whimpering and begging for mercy, or caught helpless and unawares.
The best example of this dichotomy is English Bob, a bounty hunter who makes his way to Big Whiskey, partly for the thousand reward, but partly to inflate his own reputation with the biographer who’s there to document the whole thing.
Bob knows all too well that the days of the Old West, of gun battles and frontier adventures are coming to an end now. That there are fewer and fewer people around who remember what it was actually like. And that the age of mythmaking and romanticism has just taken off. And he’s there to exploit it.
The Schofield Kid and Lost Innocence
He’s styled himself as a classic gentleman gunfighter, elegant, refined, and well-dressed. He even has an upper class aristocratic accent. He spins exaggerated tales of mythical duels and epic gun battles to his eager biographer who’s already writing sensational novels about his exploits.
But as we soon find out, his reputation is entirely built on lies and exaggeration. The moment he encounters Little Bill, his mask slips and his real, much more common accent shows through.
So much for the gentleman gunfighter. Bill easily disarms him and beats the shit out of him in the middle of the street. And as he explains to Bob’s biographer later, he’s been lying about his entire career.
The Weight of Age and Decline
In fact, one of the only gun battles that English Bob actually managed to win was a drunken brawl in his saloon where he only survived because his opponent’s gun misfired.
His biographer, Beauchamp, is also a vital thread that runs through the story, tying together three of the major characters, playing on his gullibility and romantic sensibilities. Bob feeds the writer heroic, embellished stories that he easily falls for. But after learning the truth about him and listening to Little Bill’s much more pragmatic view of the Wild West, Beauchamp abandons English Bob and stays with Bill instead, basically transferring his hero worship to a new benefactor.
Again, the film’s making a point about how easily legends can be created, transferred, or in some cases abandoned. And keep that in mind, dear viewer, because it’ll be important later.
Little Bill – The Flawed Face of Authority
The flip side to English Bob is the Schofield Kid, a young and ambitious wannabe gunfighter raised on the same tall tales and mythmaking that guys like Beauchamp have been putting out. He represents youthful bravado, the seductive pull of violence and adventure, and the harsh awakening to reality.
He’s introduced as a brash, aggressive, and boastful young man who seeks out Munny to partner on the bounty for the cowboys. He carries a Schofield revolver, hence the nickname, and constantly boasts about his supposed exploits.
In reality, he suffers from acute short-sightedness. He can barely see beyond 50 yards, which is why he needs Munny’s help. And his tough guy persona is compensation for his inexperience. He’s the very embodiment of the dime novel gunslinger fantasy. Young, eager for glory, and completely naive about what killing actually entails.
William Munny – The Ultimate Anti-Hero
His poor eyesight is a literal plot device to bring in Munny and Ned to help him. But it’s also an obvious piece of symbolism. He’s short-sighted about where this is all leading and blind to the true cost of violence.
But he learns soon enough. When the group ambushes the first cowboy, Davey, Ned mortally wounds the guy but can’t bring himself to finish him off, shattering the Schofield Kid’s illusions about how easy it is to kill a man. Instead, Munny has to finish the job.
Later at the outhouse, the Kid manages to ambush and kill the second cowboy, Quick Mike, catching him by surprise while he’s taking a shit. This is definitely not a heroic showdown. It’s sudden, ugly, and pathetic.
Final Thoughts on the Film
Immediately afterwards, the Kid breaks down and he confesses to Munny that this was his first ever kill. He’s never even shot anyone before. The glamour and heroism that he imagined for himself isn’t there at all. Instead, there’s just the horrifying reality that he took another human life.
It also sparks one of the greatest lines in the entire movie:
“Well, I guess they had it coming.”
“We all have it coming, kid.”
By the time the group returns to collect the reward, the Kid has become a changed man. He’s quiet, somber, remorseful, and horrified by what he’s done. He refuses his full share of the money, overwhelmed by guilt.
Conclusions
In the end, he vows never to kill again. He hands over his gun and rides away, choosing to abandon the life of a bounty hunter before it destroys him. Arguably the only character in the whole movie who finds true redemption before it’s too late.
Another aspect of Unforgiven’s story is the harsh reality of age and decline. When we first meet him, Will Munny is a broken, aging, not particularly capable farmer haunted by his reputation as a cold-blooded killer.
Physically though, he’s definitely not the man he once was. He struggles just to mount his horse without falling off it. His aim is poor and he’s obviously slower and weaker than he used to be.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Unforgiven about?
Unforgiven is a 1992 Clint Eastwood revisionist western about an aging former bounty hunter pulled back into violence in a somber tale of revenge, corruption, and redemption.
Who directed Unforgiven?
Clint Eastwood directed and starred in the film.
What year was Unforgiven released?
Unforgiven was released in 1992.
What are the main themes explored in Unforgiven?
The film explores the myth versus the grim reality of the Old West, the true cost of violence, aging and decline, and the deconstruction of the western genre without destroying it.
Is there a happy ending in Unforgiven?
No. The ending is somber, leaving the protagonist exhausted and unforgiven after he returns to his violent past.
Why is Unforgiven considered one of the greatest westerns?
It successfully deconstructs the western genre while still paying tribute to it, features deep themes, outstanding performances, and serves as a poignant farewell to the myths of the Wild West.
William Munny stands as one of cinema’s greatest anti-heroes: legendary, broken, and ultimately unforgiven.
